1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a stop marker recognition apparatus of a vehicle drive assist system for recognizing a stop marker ahead of a vehicle.
2. Discussion of Prior Art
In recent years, the conception of an Intelligent Transport System (ITS) has been introduced to technologies for developing vehicles. For example, Japanese Patent Application Laid-open No. Toku-Kai 2000-118261 discloses a technology in which an own vehicle automatically follows up a preceding vehicle in a traffic jam, particularly in a stop-and-go traffic condition by electronically controlling a throttle valve and a brake system according to signals of an inter-vehicle distance detecting sensor.
However, this technology has a problem when the own vehicle enters an intersection. In case where the preceding vehicle stops across the intersection, the own vehicle must stop at a stop marker before the intersection. Since prior technologies have no function to detect the stop marker and to inform a vehicle operator, the own vehicle can not stop at the stop marker. Japanese Patent Applications Laid-open No. Toku-Kai-Hei 9-190537, No. Toku-Kai-Hei 5-289743 and many other technologies propose apparatuses for recognizing white markers on roads, however any of these technologies detect only lane markers and can not detect stop markers lying on roads in a widthwise direction of the vehicle.